Tag: United Kingdom

Rachel Reeves has pledged to introduce a “Covid corruption commissioner” in government aimed at recouping billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that has been lost to fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic.

The shadow chancellor is set to announce today that the body will chase at least £2.6 billion of “lost” public funds.

In total, an estimated £7.2 billion was lost in fraud from Covid support schemes including from business loans and grants, furlough and then-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s “eat out to help out” programme.

In her conference speech in Liverpool, as reported by the Guardian newspaper, Reeves will announce that Labour would review sentencing on fraud and corruption conducted against UK public services, as well as reform public procurement rules to include a strong “debarment and exclusion” regime for those complicit in fraud against the state.

“The cost to the taxpayer of Covid fraud is estimated at £7.2 billion with every one of those cheques signed by Rishi Sunak as chancellor and yet just 2 per cent of fraudulent Covid grants have been recovered”, Reeves will add.

“We will appoint a Covid corruption commissioner equipped with the powers they need and the mandate to do what it takes to chase those who have ripped off the taxpayer, taking them to court and clawing back every penny of taxpayers’ money that they can.

“That money belongs in our NHS, it belongs in our schools, it belongs in our police and conference – we want that money back.”

In her speech today, Reeves will also announce that a Labour government would accelerate the planning process for critical national infrastructure.

The proposals include updating all national policy statements, some of which have not been revised for over a decade, within the first six months of Labour entering office.

Reeves will also address criticism of Labour that it has been too focused on providing reassurance to voters, and not giving them enough to inspire them.

The Guardian reports that the £28 billion green investment plan will be key to this.

The shadow chancellor will say: “Labour’s task is to restore hope to our politics. … The hope that lets us face the future with confidence, with a new era of economic security because there is no hope without security.

“You cannot dream big if you cannot sleep in peace at night. The peace that comes from knowing you have enough to put aside for a rainy day and the knowledge that, when you need them, strong public services will be there for you and your family.

“The strength that allows a society to withstand global shocks because it is from those strong foundations of security that hope can spring.”

Speaking this morning, Reeves said a Labour government would be prepared to borrow but only within its fiscal rules.

The shadow chancellor told Times Radio she had set out fiscal rules and would stick to them with “iron discipline”.

They include paying for day-to-day expenditure through tax receipts, getting debt down as a share of the economy “and then only subject to that will we invest in things that are going to grow our economy”.

She added: “We will only borrow if it is consistent with those fiscal rules”, citing the key rule which commits the party in government to have “debt coming down by the end of the parliament”.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has been accused of “desperate stuff” over his plans to hold an event and take part in a broadcast interview during Labour conference.

An unwritten agreement between Labour and the Conservatives suggests the two main parties do not compete for attention during each other’s annual conferences.

However, Sunak will hold a “PM connect” Q&A event this morning and do a Radio 2 interview with Jeremy Vine which is set to clash with Reeves’ speech.

It is an apparent bid to the shadow chancellor out of the headlines.

A Labour source told the Politico website the move was a “bit below the belt and a bit naff”.

Another said it was “desperate stuff and shows they’re rattled by a changed Labour Party and our plans to change Britain.”

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Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will today address the party’s annual conference just days after it recorded a key by-election victory at the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

The result saw Michael Shanks replace MP Margaret Ferrier, who was ousted from her party (the SNP) and then her seat in August after a successful recall petition for breaching COVID restrictions during lockdown in 2020.

Shanks received 17,845 votes compared to SNP candidate Katy Loudon’s 8,399. The by-election saw a swing of 20.4 per cent to Labour, a fact which Sir Keir Starmer will interpret as proof of a Labour recovery in Scotland. 

In total, Labour took 58% of the vote at the by-election count in South Lanarkshire on Thursday night.

The result, experts explained, if replicated in a general election, could lead to a virtual clean sweep north of the border.

Today, Scottish Labour leader Sarwar will reaffirm that he believes his party can beat the SNP in seats “across Scotland” at the next general election.

He will tell the Labour Party conference: “Now no SNP MP can sit safely, taking their communities for granted as so many have”.

Addressing the Scottish first minister directly, Sarwar will say “So I say to Humza Yousaf: This isn’t about swings or the polls – this is about putting the people of Scotland first.

“And because you won’t do that – we can beat you across Scotland.

“Every community in Scotland now has the chance to choose change with Scottish Labour.”

He will also say that the SNP has chosen to “blame the voters” for their loss.

“The result in Rutherglen and Hamilton West showed something I’ve long suspected, and that I imagine the SNP have long feared”, he will tell delegates.

“The cracks in the foundations of the SNP are deeper and wider than they’ve ever recognised and while senior nationalists have lined up in TV studios to blame the voters – they have missed the point.

“Just like the Tories before them, they’ve made the mistake of thinking politics is a game.

“But I’ve got a message for them. Politics is about service – delivering for communities.

“It isn’t about the same old constitutional fights and asking people to pay more for less. It isn’t about failing to support our public services and trying to blame somebody else. Politics is about changing lives.”

He will add: “It is about delivering a future where everyone can live up to their potential. It is about serving the people of Scotland. That is what the SNP have forgotten.

“It’s that failure to stand up for Scotland, that failure to put country before party that has seen people turn their backs on them.

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We are all familiar with that morning-after-the-election feeling. When you reach for your mobile half asleep and squint at the headlines, struggling to take in yet another horrendous election result and feeling like a character from a sci-fi film, stranded in an alternative, dystopian version of the future.

Well, there’s a UK general election coming in just over a year, if not sooner, and if we want to wake up to the right kind of future, we better start working for it now. Because we really cannot afford to waste another five years with a government that doesn’t care.

We’ve just been through the hottest summer ever recorded, with wildfires, heatwaves, droughts and floods destroying homes and claiming lives all around the world. Here in the UK, our country seems to be crumbling like the concrete in our schools. Sky-high energy bills, the cost of living, an ailing economy, tonnes of sewage in our rivers – there are huge problems everywhere you look.

But none of this is inevitable. Because these aren’t crises, they’re scandals –  it’s where bad decisions by governments and corporations have led us.

Look at what the current government has been up to. This month, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, took to the airwaves to announce a major rollback of key climate policies, from home insulation to a phase-out of polluting cars. He claimed it was about being honest about the costs of net zero but he was taking the country for fools. Weakening these policies will leave more households hooked on volatile fossil fuels, our cities with more air pollution and our country lagging behind in the global race to a clean economy. The only real winners are fossil fuel giants.

And this is just the culmination of a litany of failures on climate and nature that has seen the government block affordable renewables, let water firms turn our rivers into open sewers and ignore the science by  opening up the North Sea to more oil and gas drilling. We can’t go on like this – it’s time to demand better, of this government and of every political party.

As the world’s leading energy experts have just reminded us, the solutions to fix the climate crisis are already here. They’re also popular, affordable and bring plenty of other benefits besides cutting emissions. We just need politicians of every party with the will to do it. A strong majority of people in this country support wind and solar, more government investment in home insulation and stronger nature protection.

Fixing our energy-wasting homes and unblocking renewables means affordable bills, a safer climate and creating jobs. Cheaper, better public transport leads to safer, quieter streets and cleaner air. Taxing big polluters like oil giants can help fund climate solutions. And tackling air pollution, cold homes and extreme weather will also ease pressure on our NHS.

None of this is pie-in-the-sky stuff. These are tried and tested solutions, and other countries are already rolling them out. The US has pumped billions into the green economy. Germany has made train travel around the country cheaper for everyone. Sales of heat pumps are taking off all over Europe. And Spain has just banned all new coal, gas and oil production. If they can do it, why can’t we?

The next few years will be crucial to keeping a safe, healthy climate. And the next election is a key moment to ensure whoever wins gets the need to tackle the climate and nature crisis. We simply can’t waste it. We need to make our voices heard right now, at the election and in the years to come. Politicians need to know they are being held to account. That’s why I’ve joined tens of thousands of people in supporting Greenpeace UK’s Project Climate Vote.

Greenpeace is perhaps better known for boarding oil rigs and scaling buildings, but they have always mobilised people to fight for climate action. This time, they’re doing something even more ambitious. They have launched a nationwide door-knocking campaign to recruit at least one million Climate Voters ahead of the next election, and they’re inviting everyone who cares about a healthier, safe and fairer future to take part.

Over the next few weeks and months, thousands of people from all walks of life will go door to door holding conversations about climate, nature and other vital issues on the doorstep. Some of these ‘climate canvassers’ will then train other volunteers to do the same, aiming to create a snowball effect rippling through the country, but especially in those marginal seats where just a few hundreds or thousands of votes will decide the election.

This growing community of Climate Voters will put pressure on all political parties to up their game on climate and nature right now; they’ll vote with climate and nature in mind and crucially hold the next government to account. Climate Voters will give a voice and political agency to a climate majority that already exists in this country, but that’s all too often ignored by politicians. Many MPs know most of the UK public are worried about the climate crisis and want more government action, but they don’t think these are issues people will vote on. We’re going to prove them wrong, and turn the climate majority into a political force all parties will have to reckon with.

Is this a long shot? Perhaps. But there’s too much at stake not to give it a go. And if by doing this we just increase our chances of waking up on the morning after the election to something vaguely resembling hope, it will have been worth it.

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